Come the 30th of May, the highly anticipated 12th ICC Cricket World Cup begins with the first match between South Africa and host country England setting the stage for an exciting month of high octane cricketing action. Apart from the ongoing Indian T20 League, as a precursor to the main event, most teams have a hectic round of pre-World Cup games lined up and we at Super 8 take a sneak peek at them.

The 2019 edition of the World Cup is going to be a radically different version from 2015 and these warm up matches will go a long way in preparing teams for what lies ahead. There are only 10 teams that will be competing for the prize down from 14 four years ago. All of the teams will play each other once in the group stage and the top-4 sides qualify for the semi-finals. The top team after the group stage will play the fourth team in one semi-final while the second and the third team will play each other in the other semi-final. The winner of the semi-final will play each other in the final. This format ensures that each side plays the same opponents to determine which the best four sides are. It is similar to the 1992 World Cup format in most regards.

SERIES
🇬🇧🇮🇪England tour of Ireland May 03rd
🇮🇪🌴🇧🇩Windies and Bangladesh in Ireland Tri-Series May 05th – May 17th
🇬🇧🇵🇰Pakistan tour of England May 05th – May 19thAfghanistan tour of Scotland May 08th – May 10th🇱🇰Sri Lanka tour of Scotland May 18th – May 21st
🇮🇪 Afghanistan tour of Ireland May 19th – May 21st

🇮🇪🌴🇧🇩 Ireland host the Windies and Bangladesh for a tri-series that kickstarts on May 5th before the top two teams take on each other in the final on May 17th. According to the format of the series, each team will play against each other twice in a round-robin phase. The two teams with most points will then advance to the series-decider in Dublin. The series will be Bangladesh and Windies’ last international assignment before they leave for the World Cup.

Unsurprisingly, both Bangladesh and the Windies will use the series as a preparation for the mega-event. With the conditions in Ireland not very different from that in England, the players will have a great opportunity to acclimatising to foreign conditions. The Windies start their World Cup campaign on May 31st against Pakistan, while Bangladesh open against South Africa, on June 2nd. Before the World Cup, both the teams will play a couple of warm-up games. While Bangladesh play Pakistan and India, the Windies will take on South Africa and New Zealand.

🇬🇧🇵🇰 The Pakistan Team currently touring England right before the 2019 World Cup might turn out to be extremely advantageous as they will be notching up valuable game time in English conditions at the World Cup venues. This might come in handy for the Pakistanis as the players will get ample time to settle down in the alien conditions before the biggest cricket tournament of the year.

The English Cricket team will be focusing on getting their team combinations right as being the host nation, they have additional pressure to perform. This series will come in handy to get the much needed last moment practice for the Englishmen.

The Afghanistan cricket team will play two One Day International (ODI) matches in Scotland as part of their preparation for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Afghanistan last visited Scotland in July 2016, winning a rain-affected two-match series 1–0. The two teams last played each other in an ODI in March 2018, during the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, with Scotland winning by seven wickets. In April 2019, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) named Gulbadin Naib as the team’s new ODI captain, replacing Asghar Afghan and this series will be the first real test for the new skipper.

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka travel to Scotland for two ODIs before their all-important trip to England and Wales for the 2019 World Cup. The team is currently struggling to make a mark in international cricket and the last time they faced off against the Scots was in two unofficial ODIs in Kent in early 2017. The result was squared at 1-1.

Scotland’s first ever One-Day International victory over a Test nation – Zimbabwe – came in 2017. The ODI win was their first against a Test nation since the 2015 World Cup. Earlier in 2018, they registered another historic win when they beat top-ranked England by 6 runs in a nail-biter at Edinburgh. Scotland, batting first, scored 371 runs and set the record for the highest total by an Associate Nation in ODIs. They also went past Kenya’s 21-year-old record of 347 runs.

When the ICC announced its decision to reduce the number of teams in the World Cup from 14 to 10, they faced heavy criticism for the same. The number 13th ranked Scotland missed out and it is time we give more opportunities to the associate nations.

🇮🇪Following the Ireland cricket team’s tour of India in February and March 2019 to play three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), five One Day Internationals (ODIs) and a Test match against the Afghans, the teams meet again for two One Day International (ODI) matches in Ireland. Both matches will be played at the Stormont Cricket Ground in Belfast and are part of Afghanistan’s preparation for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.